以税为善：重新平衡现有税收体系，助推面向未来的全球经济（英文版）.pdf

Tax as a force for goodRebalancing our tax systems to support a global economy fit for the future The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants December 2018About ACCA ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants, offering business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management. ACCA supports its 208,000 members and 503,000 students in 179 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. ACCA works through a network of 104 offices and centres and more than 7,300 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through its public interest remit, ACCA promotes appropriate regulation of accounting and conducts relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence. ACCA is currently introducing major innovations to its flagship qualification to ensure its members and future members continue to be the most valued, up to date and sought-after accountancy professionals globally. Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. More information is here: accaglobalTax as a force for goodRebalancing our tax systems to support a global economy fit for the futureAbout this discussion paperThis discussion paper explores how shifting tax burden from labour to natural resource use, pollution and consumption could help meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an inclusive, circular economy.ABOUT THE AUTHORFemke Groothuis is co-founder and president of The Extax Project (ex-tax), a think tank focused on fiscal innovations to boost the SDGs and the circular economy. The foundation works with experts and business leaders to enhance understanding of the dynamics of a tax shift from labour to natural resource use and pollution. Groothuis is an analyst, adviser, publicist and public speaker. Between 1999 and 2009, she was Investment Manager at Extent Green Venture Capital, a Dutch impact investment fund.4ForewordThe art of tax policy is to strike a balance between securing the revenues needed by governments to finance their social and economic programmes and maximising the contribution of the tax system to a thriving, efficient and inclusive economy.Achieving these multiple objectives is always difficult but particularly so in times when societies are going through profound change in terms of how economies function and where benefits from economic activity end up. How to make sure that the rules of international taxation avoid double taxation but also double non-taxation? How to ensure a level playing field between businesses that rely strongly on digital platforms and those that do not? How can labour taxes adapt to the gig economy? What role for taxes in mitigating rising inequality of income and of opportunity? These are just some of the questions that tax policy makers grapple with.In addition to all this, the OECD has long argued that taxes have major potential as policy instruments to help curb greenhouse gas emissions, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss. Well-designed environmental taxes provide households and businesses with financial incentives to reduce pollution in ways that suit them best, and this reduces pollution at lower cost than less flexible forms of government regulation are able to deliver. This is a matter of cost-effective environment policy. Environmental taxes also raise revenue, and in this sense are a matter of tax policy. How to deploy the revenues? Answers to this question have a major impact on the economic case for environmental taxes revenues should not be squandered and on the social acceptance of environmental taxes.The discussion in the paper directly speaks to the interaction between tax policy and environment policy aspects of environmental taxation. It argues that shifting the tax burden from work to environmentally harmful activities is both good for the environment and strengthens the inclusive growth potential of our economies. OECD work has similarly identified labour tax cuts as one promising option for using environmental tax revenues. Depending on countries specific contexts, other good options can include business tax cuts, domestic resource mobilisation, etc. The point is that decisions on revenue use can make or break the case for environmental taxes. Discussions and decisions on environmental taxes therefore best take place in dialogue between environment and tax policy makers.Tax reform can improve environmental performance while contributing to inclusive growth. As is shown in the paper, however, tax policy is not living up to its potential and signs of change are not particularly strong. Policy-makers should not be asleep at the wheel, but instead take on the difficult task of turning the potential of environmental tax reform into a politically workable proposition. The analysis below provides evidence and arguments to that end, for both the tax and environment policy communities.Pascal Saint-Amans Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECDContentsExecutive summary 6Introduction 91. Socio-economic megatrends: the need for inclusive growth 102. Labour taxes: a barrier for inclusive growth 123. Environmental megatrends: the need for sustainable growth 154. Resource-use and pollution hardly taxed, and subsidised 175. How to shift from labour to green taxes 226. Principles for the tax evolution 287. Businesses are leading the change 32A call for action 38Discussion questions 39Footnotes 40References 42AN INTER-CONNECTED WORLDHumanity is facing massive challenges. The most daunting task will be to adapt the metabolism of our economies to match the carrying capacity of the earth and stay below two degrees Celsius of global warming. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, global carbon emissions must start to reduce well within 12 years if we are to prevent large-scale natural and human risks from becoming irreversible reality. We face equally important social challenges in our societies, including enabling a growing global population to develop to their full potential and find decent work. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) connect the social and ecological challenges that will dominate the global agenda for the upcoming decades.Governments need to develop coherent strategies to deal with these megatrends. Tax must play an important part in this, as tax costs have a fundamental impact on investment, employment and consumption decisions. TAX AND THE FUTURE OF WORKIn many countries, unemployment, underemployment and vulnerable employment are placing unprecedented demands on the population and national budgets. Ageing populations are straining national pensions and healthcare budgets. New technologies Executive summary6are enabling business models that revolutionise employment and, consequently, change the amount of taxes that governments can raise from businesses and workers. This trend makes it even more important to foster inclusive economies in which labour demand is sufficient to enable people to find new roles for those whose tasks and jobs are taken over by machines.TAX SYSTEMS NEED TO ADAPTConsidering the challenges societies are facing today, it is time to rebalance our tax systems. Just as we now see our planet as an interconnected system, we must take a fresh look at our tax systems as a whole. Specific tax measures, such as a carbon tax, landfill levies or taxes on single-use plastic, may help but they are no longer enough. In order to develop tax systems that are fit for the 21st century, it is necessary to think more widely about what governments should be taxing, and how the tax revenues should be used.LABOUR TAXES AND GREEN TAXESThis discussion paper focuses on taxes that are less publicised than corporate income tax but directly related to todays socio-economic challenges: labour taxes (which include personal income tax, payroll taxes and social security contributions) and green taxes (on pollution and resource-use such as carbon emissions, fossil fuels, water, waste and metals). Currently, tax revenue is raised largely on employment. In OECD countries, labour taxes account for 52.1% of total public revenue raised, while green taxes account for only 5.3%. There is some variation across continents: African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries may rely more on taxes on goods and services. Still, labour taxes provide a significant share of revenues in all regions and substantially more than green taxes.Why should governments minimise the tax burden on labour?LABOUR TAXES AFFECT EMPLOYMENT DECISIONSOver the years, institutions such as the World Bank, the OECD, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, the Eurogroup and the European Council have called for lower labour taxes to reduce unemployment. High payroll costs encourage employers to gain efficiency by minimising the number of employees. They could also tip the scales towards more precarious ways of working: insecure, temporary or part-time jobs (including in the gig economy or platform economy), and informal employment (where people work without a legal contract). In general, a lower tax burden on labour should benefit all sectors that rely heavily on human resources, from innovative businesses undertaking research and development, to hospitals and universities.Tax as a force for good | Executive summary7Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Business and Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC) have also supported such a tax reform. Economic modelling has shown that switching 554bn of taxes from labour to pollution and resource use in the European Union could add 842bn in GDP, enable 6.6m more people to be in employment, cut carbon emissions by 8.2% by 2020 and save 27.7bn on the energy import bill over a five-year period.BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATIONAlthough the basic principle is simple, rebalancing our tax system is not easy for a number of reasons. First of all, tax policy is driven by politics, and the relatively short cycles in politics makes it difficult to develop long-term tax strategies. Secondly, nobody really likes to pay for something that was previously free of charge. Also, industries with an interest in keeping the status quo often have a stronger voice than other interest groups such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), healthcare organisations or small and medium-sized enterprises that may have an interest in a transition. Finally, there is the challenge of how to coordinate tax reform internationally, as shifting financial incentives will change trade patterns.THE TAX SHIFT IN PRACTICEDespite the barriers, tax shifts have been implemented in several countries, including the UK (in 1996), Germany (2007), and Colombia (2012). In the 1990s and early 2000s, seven European countries took steps to shift the tax burden from labour to energy and transportation. In 2008, the Canadian province British Columbia began to tax fossil fuel users while recycling revenue through tax cuts on both labour and capital, and an additional tax credit for low-income households.USE OF REVENUESA lower tax burden on labour can generally be achieved by using revenues from green taxes towards a reduction of personal income tax, payroll taxes and social security contributions. An often-heard worry is that green taxes could increase income inequality: they hit low-income households more, as they pay higher shares of their incomes towards energy-intensive goods. It is, however, Avoiding a high tax burden on labour, while boosting social protection, will be indispensible to fostering inclusive economies. A key option for financing such a strategy is to shift the tax burden towards pollution and resource-use, as these tend to be relatively tax-free, or even subsidised.ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS ARE PASSED ON TO SOCIETY AND FUTURE GENERATIONSThe costs of the environmental megatrends such as climate disruption and pollution are becoming ever more clear. The Lancet Commission estimates global welfare losses from pollution at $4.6 trillion a year, or 6.2% of global economic output. The long-term negative impacts on the global economy caused by carbon emissions in 2017 alone were $16 trillion. Such costs are externalised, meaning that they are passed on to society, individuals and future generations, rather than absorbed by the polluter. While international organisations agree that carbon pricing is key to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, at the moment, 46% of carbon emissions are still free of charge. Half of the emissions covered by carbon pricing mechanisms are priced at less than $10 per tonne.GREEN TAX USE IS LIMITEDMore than a hundred options for green taxes are available to governments for applying the polluter pays principle, including putting a price on air pollution (such as carbon emissions), fossil fuels, waste and water. Green taxes are considered growth-friendly, as they are less distortive to the economy than taxes on labour and income. Currently, however, their use is limited. Over the past 15 years, environmental tax as a share of GDP has declined in 52 out of 79 countries in the OECD database. In addition to relatively low green tax levels, global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $373bn in 2015.INCREASE GREEN TAXES, REDUCE LABOUR TAXESThe basic principle is simple: tax less what you want more of. The OECD, IMF, World Bank, European Commission and International Labour Organisation (ILO) have all called for a change from labour taxes towards tax on resource-use and consumption. Business groups such as the World Business Council for Avoiding a high tax burden on labour, while boosting social protection, will be indispensible to fostering inclusive economies. Tax as a force for good | Executive summary8applying business models such as repair and maintenance services, recycling, remanufacturing and refurbishment. Materials use and carbon emissions are closely linked. An upcoming OECD report states that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are related to materials management activities. Several governments (including China, Germany and France) as well as the EU have adopted the circular economy as a policy goal. Businesses large and small, and in every sector have started to explore innovative circular business opportunities.TAX SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT THE CIRCULAR ECONOMYCircular business models tend to require innovation, customisation, more personal attention and customer service than the business-as-usual selling of mass-produced goods. When pollution and primary